In the last paragraph, we talked about the issues of no further studies and no employment, and how we view the environment of which no further studies, no employment teenagers stay from the perspective of ecological systems. In this issue, we are going to talk about "runaway". In most societies, leaving home, which is called "runaway" is regarded as a kind of external deviant behavior, or called "Delinquent". “Delinquent" means that there are possibilities to commit crime. In Taiwan, "Delinquent youth" is defined as a youth of 12 to 18 years of age that leaves home for more than one night without the consent of his/her parents, guardian or primary caregiver. Think about it. When you see this definition, what do you consider the society's imagination of the runaway youths? The behavior is regarded as a potential social problems. Runaway is deviant and bad behavior. In Taiwan, youth Proceeding Act has been enacted since January 31, 1962, and in the laws the runaway youths is the same as delinquent youth. As a result, those youths will be handed over to youth Court. The judicial department in 1976 defined runaway youths and children as one kind of delinquent youths in the Art. 3. 2 because they are liable to commit crime. So in the definition of the law, it is clear that runaway is definitely a deviant behavior, and a delinquent behavior. By the definition of law and rationale, this is how we view it as. Is the definition you just chose like this kind of thoughts? Let's see the related reports. And we see others. What does the word "escape" means? Do we escape from bad thing, or the good one. Let's think about it: Does the words "flee" and "escape" refer to escape from bad thing or good thing? Why should I escape if it is good thing? Is it more clever for me to choose to escape if it is bad thing? The question is, how is the environment I entered after escaping from the bad environment? The runaway youths usually enter another environment that will hurt them. The reason is simple. -- They have to survive. In this part, I hope to lead you to see "runaway" from another point of views. In 1960-1970, the runaway children arouse public concern in the United States. Although I used the term "children", most of them are youths. After all, the autonomy, capacity to take action, and the interpersonal network that youths have is much more than children have. So in the American society, about 1970-80 years you can find that there were a lot of research springing up. For example, in the newspaper there are adventure seeking, rebellious, and runaway behavior. After we know more about the runaway's family environment, we find that the type of runaway is diverse. It is not a homogeneous group. The runaway individuals seek for survival, thus looking for support and the strategy of problem solving. Runaway behavior is not an individual deviation or morbid. The theory of development thinks that the runaway behavior can be regarded as a normal performance of developing independence and seeking autonomy. While the theory of family system and ecosystem emphasizes that the runaway behavior is a result of the interaction of individual, family, school and the whole social environment. This is similar to what we mentioned in the first lecture. The runaway behavior results from the lack of good adaptation of our environment. These are some connotation discussed by some research and papers. I'm going to talk with you, in some literature in the United States, just mentioned that there are different types of "runaway", then, how many categories do we divide? In Zide and Cherry's article, he divided it into four categories, First, called "running to"; second, called "running from"; third, called "thrown out"; and the last one, called "forsaken". And I'm going to discuss with you specifically, what are the connotation and attributes of these four categories. First, let's start from "running to". For those in "running to" type, runaway does not originate from negative experiences in family, school, or community, but from the individual seeking adventure, freedom, or escaping from parents' strict discipline, thinking that there are a lot of things worth pursuing in the outer world. so the kids go away, this kind of kids usually choose to runaway repeatedly, but the time they leave home is shorter, and they keep some contact with their family, more able to return home at will, this is a kind of "running to". And because the "running to" are more autonomous in their choices, so sometimes they are called "positive runaways". In the group of runaway, they have more high=performance behavior, and their own views are stronger, their contact to the school is high, and they know how to make use of social resources and social support system, to protect themselves in the street life. What about the "running from"? So-called running from, teenagers of this type, experience more multifaceted difficulties, they leave home in order to escape from family conflict, as well as dysfunctional family or morbid conditions. These kids have higher possibility to be harmed at home, or suffered sexual abuse, leaving home is a rational decision, to protect themselves from potential or continuous harm and danger. But this type of runaway teenagers, usually have less autonomous opinions. Their links with the mother or family are weaker, and are more often involved in sexual exploitation of the streets. After leaving home, their contact with school and peers will become stronger. The kids of "thrown out" type, most experienced the family solution, they felt alienated by his family, so they left home. They have little contact with their family, or even no contact. In the relevant research in the United States, this category is the most of the types of runaway. They usually do not want to return home because the home is not warm. Home, in fact, usually rarely exists, the family actually do not expect them to go home. They have accumulated a lot of frustrated experiences at home, school, or community for a long time. They have some strong assertive, so they often show resistance, anti-social, aggressive behavior, and are prone to criminal behavior. Of course this kind of people we see in our society, are those so-called specter of crime, runaway youths. What about the "forsaken"? The kids of this kind, we usually find that they came from low income or a large population family, the families have no way to give these teenagers enough financial support, forced them to leave home and make a living by themselves. That is, they have to grow up, they have to feed themselves. Usually, they have a lower link with their mother, which makes their growing process full of disappointment. Since the family can not provide the main care, they experienced severe poverty and homelessness. They are also less likely to have a peer friend, and more difficult to establish socialized interaction with peers. Of course, the link with the community resources will be low. Under this condition, they usually have lower self-esteem and self-concept, they are not good at protecting themselves, and are more easily to be used. In order to survive, they are also likely to suffer some sexual exploitation or abuse. So based on these four types, what can we find? We find that runaway behavior mostly is not caused by the personal bias we see, but by the family and the neighborhood. And the most interesting thing is why we can't see their so-called pitiful side? When a child ran away from home, he came to the neighborhood to make a living. Back to the last part, we talked about the limitation of the job market. In the field of making a living, it is not easy for him to get a good job, and to find shelter. So he might take the so-called inappropriate way, the border industry I just mentioned, to meet his need for financial or economic security. For many women, engaged in transactional sex is the easiest and fastest way. She might be absorbed into the organization, the criminal gang. Or she may be used to engage in a variety of criminal acts. After all, it's not easy to find a proper job. Did you still remember the employment dilemma in the last class? Therefore, in such a process, they are exposed to the complexity of the external environment. Children make a living on the streets, and this is not easy. Maybe you have never experienced, and you'd better not go through it. And maybe you don't know any runaway teens, but here I recommend a book for everyone to learn about these children's street life. This book is about a Chinese American woman, Evelyn Lau, who once lived on the streets. She published this book called "Runaway" and written in English originally. But there is a Chinese translation published in Taiwan. This book honestly records some details about the street life of the writer herself. Fortunately, besides the translation publishing, the book was adapted into a two-hour film, broadcast by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) in 1993. Those who are interested in the film can watch it on their own, to understand that when a person walked through those years she ran away from home, how did she treat her experience, and how did she get over it. Of course I hope through such a process, we can take a look at how to combine with the ecological system I just mentioned in this class, to see our so-called runaway behavior. Viewed from a micro-view system, that individuals want to seek independence, and family cannot provide with protection and warmth, is the start of runaway. In the intermediary system, the pull between family and the community, The family went to school to find their children, we found after children ran away from home, the parents went to school and got their children home. And community life seems to be more attractive and with temptation. Also, from the external system, the hostility of employment environment let them lose the opportunity to make a living. And from the giant vision system, the social and culture values believe that teenagers should stay at home, and live well at home, the shelter, and that they should be protected well. While the legal system in society thinks that runaway is a deviation, is a delinquent behavior. Think for these children, going home, leaving home are both suffering. Choosing going home may be suffered from the domestic abuse and the loneliness, while choosing leaving home has to suffer from helplessness. Anyway, you have to choose one to suffer. How many choice do they have? In the past, there are studies found that, to those runaway teenagers, it is not meaningless. Leaving home can help them learn and grow up, can change their status quo and thus making them obtain the sense of control for life, can let them learn how to take care of themselves, can make them to know the way to survive on the streets, to seek the help of external resources, and to be willing to accept some help. So, did anyone just figure out that I just changed the word, runaway, to the phrase, leaving home, the change of the word usage. Right, run and leave are different. When we encounter those children, we see the deviations behind the behavior of escape, and a hope for better lifestyle behind the behavior of leaving. As for those who run away from their family, they are highly willed, with the complex and diverse background. Home is not always happy. Home will not always be our haven, some people's family are like a battlefield, some people's family are like a prison. When it comes to "home", it turns out to be a scab or even a shackles for them. Escape can be a rational measure under this circumstance in order to get away of being hurt. However, what should the child act if they are not allowed to run away when staying in the home is harmful? We often feel that teenager should take responsibility of runaway, but there is some time we realize that runaway is forced by the situation. I invite you to reference a video. The video is based on a true incident in China, not a fabricated story. A living story that can happen around us.
